Green Hope theater is going National. The Green Hope Theater Company took their performance of “Anon(ymous)” to the North Carolina Theater Conference High School Play Festival (NCTC), where they won many awards for acting, production, and directing. The play follows a refugee named Anon as he travels throughout the United States, living life and searching for home.
Green Hope’s production of the show won many awards at the State level, including Excellence in Staging, Excellence in Sound and Foley Design, Outstanding Achievement in Acting, Excellence in Directing as well as earning the Adjudicator’s Choice for Distinguished Play. Being one of the top two choices for distinguished play means that the show will be going to perform at the national level later this school year.
Dan Li (‘25), the actor who played Anon in the performance, was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Acting award for his performance. “It was a very creative process, and it’s been a real bonding experience with the cast and the crew.” Li said about rehearsing and putting on the show. The show is produced by students taking the fourth class in the theater track, meaning that the class spends a period each day putting the show together and rehearsing. “The amount of care we put into it, making sure it was a more authentic experience, that was really meaningful.” Li has been a part of theater productions before, but the severity of the topic made a much deeper impression on him and his performance.
Elliott Bratcher (‘25) was also given an award, being the Excellence in Sound and Foley Design award. Bratcher was given the award along with Amelia Gasper (‘25), who also worked on the sound design. “Receiving the award was very cool. I felt really confident in my abilities and was proud of me and Amelia.” Bratcher said on receiving the award. Bratcher mentioned that the time constraints were a major setback, as the play only had around three months from conception to performance. “Once the school year started we hit the ground running and didn’t have many opportunities to sit back,” as Bratcher said. The fact that the plot was made during class time rather than outside of school seemed to help the time crunch. “It was nice, it blocked out an hour of every school day dedicated to the show that wasn’t interfering with after school stuff.”
This is only the second time in school history that Green Hope has performed at NCTC, with the first being in 2022. This is the first time in school history that Green Hope has placed at NCTC, and thus booked a ticket to Nationals in March. The Green Hope Theater Company continues to make history each year with award winning performances, setting an example for future years of performers.
